Filmsane

Well, it finally happened. My fiancé, I went to see Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One last night. As a fan of the book and of Spielberg’s work (to be honest) I had huge expectations and a great dose of excitement prior watching the movie.

I left the movie theater entertained and amused to say the least but frankly not touched on an emotional level. Mostly because apart from the nostalgia there wasn’t anything to be touched by on an emotional level. The characters lacked depth and the plot development had some issues too. But god damn it, the visuals were stunning and the pop culture references were on point.

As I watched the movie, I had no problem identifying and recognizing the film, music references in the movie mostly because i’m a Millennial god damn it and because of well.. the Internet. But I have to admit I struggled with the gaming references. Look, I’m not a gamer and never have been, but my fiancé is and along the way this movie made me see his world clearly.  Yes me. Oh and in the process, it made me to understand it too so that’s a plus.

I saw traces of both James Halliday and Wade Watts in him, but also made me understand both of the characters. Like i said… My fiancé is a gamer. That was his form of escapism growing up and still is to this day. But now as an adult as he still plays, he also designs video games. His difficult and solitaire upbringing made him get lost in the games, just like the difficult life in the Stacks made Wade a fixture in the Oasis’s VR.

But there is part of James Halliday in my fiancée to. Suffering from a mild Asperger’s (similar to Holloway) his different perception of the world around him made him a recluse.

For years and years before we met, he was a loner with a weight problem, and had problems connecting not only with his peers (and people his age), but also with his family too. That’s why even to this day he feels like an outcast or a weirdo, and it’s my daily struggle to get those thought out of his head. He also loves the 80’s and let’s not forget… His favorite all time movie is Conan the barbarian. A cult and very dear film to him. He identified with the character so much, that he used it as a self-motivating tool on a daily basis. Yup. He watched the move every day (sometimes several times a day) for a dose of confidence/testosterone booster, and frankly I find that endearing. Prior meeting me, had trouble connecting with women too, and that’s where I connected the dots.

Because of Halliday’s delicate mind and admittedly socially recluse personality, he shined away from telling the woman he loved how he feel about her, before it was too late. Luckily that wasn’t the case with us, but the movie made me understand what his childhood and late adolescence must have been with that frame of mind and with those social skills.

Although I had some issues with the rest of the movie, Ready player one really made some things clear about his character and the man he’s today. And frankly i adore the man he’s today, and i have the video games to thank for that. You can expect my full review for Ready Player One shortly.